KITA making wrong move in Sabah

CONTEST.....Kita's plan to contest in all seats in Sabah is mindless as the party is still unknown in the state

By Raymond Tobung

PARTI KITA has just announced it wants to contest 60 assembly seats and 25 parliamentary seats in Sabah in the next general election.

As a new party from the peninsular, it is trying to catch up with the other parties who have for years been trail-blazing in Sabah.

If the ‘big announcement’ was supposed to prop Kita in the competition, it fell flat.

The daring proclamation was totally ignored. It has in fact raised more questions and the obvious one is “How will Kita contest in every seat and hope to win even a single one?”

Especially since its President, Zaid Ibrahim had previously announced he wanted to deregister the party, citing lack of money, of all things.

This exercise in self-pity was a follow-up of a previous confession by Zaid about how much he regretted contesting against (now) PKR Deputy President Azmin Ali.

And it was no consolation to the Kita’s Sabah chairman, Pengiran Othman Rauf, that the recent upheavals in the party were met with high ridicule from observers here.

And now after a lot of in-party dispute, with a concerted attempt to oust Zaid as the party’s principal traitor thwarted, Zaid recanted and declared he will contest in Kota Baru in GE13.

What pressure?

Zaid’s decision appears to have given Rauf a second wind. But the problem is Kita is still unknown and people here have long forgotten who Rauf is, or was.


Rauf, while trying to get a foothold for Kita and himself, however doesn’t seem to know what he is talking about.

His announcement about contest and candidates hint strongly of confusion, cowardice and poor strategy.

When announcing Kita’s grandiose plans to contest in Sabah, he said: “ We will also consider working with opposition parties in the state to form the government if that is the best for the people in the state.”

My question is how will such a co-operation be possible if you are contesting every single seat?

Rauf (photo) went on to add: “We will announce the candidates at a later date as we do not want them to be pressured before the election.”

What pressure, is he talking about? Is he afraid of corruption?

In which case are Kita leaders so valuable that a party like Umno would rush in to buy them off before nomination day? Or is Sabah Kita afraid of a little political pressure?

If so, why contest at all? Why be in politics at all?

No locus standi

The fact is Kita has not left any footsteps anywhere, let alone in Sabah.

As such would it not be prudent to introduce Kita candidates now and get themselves known to the voters? Isn’t that the normal way its done?

Maybe the real reason for this ‘fear’ of ‘pressure’ is that the party has as yet no names of potential candidates.

Todate Kita hasn’t announced the number of members it has in Sabah. It has not disclosed the number of divisions it has formed, and we have never heard of Kita holding a ceramah or launching of any type here.

As for working with local parties, Rauf hasn’t ruled out that possibility.

He said that Kita is open to working with STAR or Pakatan Rakyat Sabah, saying “we will cross the bridge when we get there… if the accumulated votes we garner in the coming election can form two-thirds of the Sabah government then we can consider working with SAPP, STAR and Pakatan.”

Now its clear what the Kita strategy is. The party is for all to slug it out in the polls first, with the opposition parties splitting the votes to give BN a victory and if Kita forms the government, then it will give a few cabinet seats to the other parties.

Fantastic strategy from someone who is supposed to be a veteran politician.